Lian
by The Qing
Summary: Damian Wayne is sent on a mission he believes to be beneath him; picking up Lian Harper from Star City. Unfortunately for them both, he is very, very wrong. Takes place during Justice League Cry for Justice with a bit of AU sprinkled in.


Lian

Summary: Damian Wayne is sent on a mission he considers beneath him; picking up Lian Harper from Star City. Unfortunately for them both, he was very wrong. AU to a single defining event in Justice League Cry For Justice.

Author Note: I've taken a few "creative liberties" with the chronology of events, but all together, I think it should work. My first DC fic ever so…yeah…

(JLA Satellite)

Roy Harper never liked it when Lian made that face, even through a video monitor, even as it was being made hundreds of miles away from the JLA satellite terminal where he sat; with its furrowed brows and frowning lips, an amalgamation of a scowl and a pout. She looked too much like her mother when she did it.

At least she had his eyes…

"Lian, I'm sorry this is so last minute but it's only going to be for the night, a few days tops." Roy said.

"But Dad, I just got here," Lian pointed out, her expression softening to one of pleading as she tried to reach him through the screen.

That was true, they had barely been in the house long enough for the paint on her bedroom walls to dry. It was starting to feel like home too.

Still, just because you felt cozy, didn't mean you were safe. The scarlet archer thought as he looked around the latest 'impenetrable' fortress the League had built for himself and darkly mused when the next psychopath would breach its defenses and infiltrate its ranks.

He shook his head, no, he couldn't think like that, despite how insane things were becoming with Hal's "justice seeking" faction of the league, and Prometheus running around, he couldn't have his daughter make his worries her own, she'd all ready had her share of tragedy, she needed a fresh start, a chance to grow away from all this bedlam.

The move was supposed to do that, new city, new life. It had worked, for the most part.

You could never be too careful though…

"I'm not asking you to pack EVERYTHING, just enough to last you until I'm sure things have calmed down." Roy flashed her a small smile, the first he had made in a while. "Now have you eaten all your brocolli?"

She answered with a "yeah", not the best indicator of honesty. He asked again, she said yeah again. He asked Mia, and the babysitter said "some", Lian objected with a "most".

They argued over whether she could have an scoop of ice cream and two cookies for desert instead of just one or the other.

Little domestic things, normal things, he doesn't quite remember what the compromise was when his face is shoved through the screen, only that such trivial concerns made him feel as if he was sitting in front of her.

"Are Oli and Di going to be all right?" Lian asked.

His smile persisted, though his thoughts cringed, was it really that obvious?

"Yeah they will, you know they can take care of themselves." His hand ghosted over the keyboard. "We'll be picking you up from that drab old house before the week is up sunshine." The key wass pressed and the screen started to flicker.

"Love you, dad."

"Love you, angel."

Lian wass gone, the screen dead silent. Roy noted that the image of her daughter has been replaced with a blurred reflection of Freddy Freeman, the new Captain Marvel.

Freddy's distorted reflection grinned. "Moving her somewhere safer man?" he asked. "Smart move."

"Thanks Freddy, She's-."

"Too little too late though…"

And for a moment, all Red Arrow can see are sparks, and all he feels is his flesh scream at the scalding glass and the cruel gloved hand responsible.

Freddy Freeman didn't wear gloves.

A kick, a bow drawn, a groveling fraud, a pierced illusion, and what remains is a memory of corrupt purple and fiery orange that will haunt Roy's dreams for days to come.

"_She's not going to like it Ollie,"_

"_We'll take her bowling or something to make up for it,"_

"_She doesn't bowl,"_

"_Then we'll do the something,"_

"_But there, you think she'll be safer there?"_

"_Old Brucie's gone Roy, the new model's not in the League, not even in the register, won't be in Prometheus's databanks, he'd stand the best chance in a fight short of a supervillain,"_

"_Again with Prometheus-."_

"_Yes, again with Prometheus. Everyone's so damn elated at the Crisis giving them all those brand new multiverses to explore that they're practically giving snakes like him a free pass!"_

"_He's a stooge."_

"_Our people have been comparing him to a psychotic Batman. And that's not a sentiment to be taken lightly Roy! You want a psychotic Batman anyway near Lian? No? Then get her the hell to the one that isn't!"_

Ollie was always so smart.

* * *

(Star City – The Queen Residence)

Uncle Oliver's house was nice. Even if he and Aunt Dinah weren't there it was nice. It had enough rooms for Lian to pretend they were there. She wouldn't have minded waiting here for them, not at all. Staring at the front door was beginning to annoy her though.

Mia on her part was trying her best not to fidget.

"It's okay if you need to go Mia, I'll be fine waiting for him on my own."

Her nanny gulped, she hadn't thought Lian would notice. "You shouldn't worry yourself too much Lian, there's just this thug calling himself the Electrocutioner acting all suspicious…well, more suspicious than a wannabe supervillain should. It's still light out, so I can stay a couple more hours with you until I have to go out on patrol."

"Uncle Ollie's house is pretty safe," Lian said.

Her babysitter gripped her bow a little tighter in anticipation, but ultimately stopped. She was going to make a pincushion of the Electorcutioner for this. "All the same, I'm not comfortable leaving you here alone, can't have some weirdo breaking down the door and-."

**Click.**

Mia and Lian's eyes widened; the door lock released and the knob was turning.

There wouldn't be enough time to slap on the mask and get Lian behind her. She drew a flashbang arrow from her quiver and aimed where the intruder's chest would be. Then she could take the girl to safety, pull up her hood, and finish off the little-.

"-**tt-**"

Speedy fired, only for the arrow to whiz past the top of the intruder's head.

"Nice shot," he said nonplussed as he stepped through the threshold.

Mia made to grab another arrow until she noticed something unusual about him, well, more short than unusual.

It was some kid; short spiky black hair, five feet give or take a couple of inches, he couldn't have been more than ten.

"Oh, jeez, I nearly hit you, I am so sorry kid!" Mia said.

The boy's eye appeared to twitch at the word 'kid', but otherwise remained passive, bored almost. "There are several things you SHOULD feel sorry for. The arrow however…" he chortled, Mia was a bit taken aback by that, what kind of 10-year old knew how to chortle? "If I had been in ANY danger of being hit, I would've ducked."

Mia felt vaguely insulted by that.

Sniffing, the boy rubbed his nose, his other hand slowly reaching behind him. "So what's all this then, you one of the bothers Queen goes up against? Here to kidnap his beloved little godchild." He turned to Lian. "If so then I suppose I'll be rescuing you today or something to that effect."

The babysitter's hand twitched near her quiver. Calling madmen like Shado and Merlin as bothers, this kid was beginning to get on her nerves. "I was going to ask you the same thing."

"You don't say?" he yawned. "The nanny then? Shame, a scuffle or two would have made this whole ordeal more interesting. I've never fought while experiencing Jet Lag before."

"How'd you get in here?" she found it odd that the door had been unlocked, rather than shattered as per the dramatics of over-the-top supervillainy. Lockpick perhaps?

He took a small key from his pocket. "Found this under the rug." He tossed it in front of him. "I fear for the security of your city's banks."

While the kid smirked and Mia grimaced, Lian found herself eyeing the odd shape at the back of the boy's jeans where his hand was resting. For a moment, she feared that it was a gun, Uncle Ollie had told her some thugs kept their pistols there because they were "too stupid to use holsters", but it was too flat to be a fire arm, too jagged as well. "Who are you?" she asked.

Imperious eyes rolled, and gave Lian the feeling she had asked a stupid, if somewhat valid, question. "Robin," he said flatly.

Speedy bit back an adamant and very profanity-filled refusal, no point in dirtying Lian's ears. She had heard that someone new had taken up the Robin mantle, and he certainly didn't look like Tim. Rumors too, she'd heard a lot of those, though he didn't look like the son of the devil.

"Earth to nanny." 'Robin' said.

He was a jerk though, that hadn't been exaggerated as all. "Where's Batman then?"

"Fighting crime outside his living room, back in Gotham." Both hands were at his side now, that somehow offended Mia. "He came to what I believed a rather poor decision to send me to pick up the girl, but judging by your…security measures." He made a gesture to the fallen key. "She might require my protection after all."

The urge to boxing glove arrow that smug little face was slowly becoming unbearable for Mia. "Call him up."

'Robin' grumbled. "Listen 'Speedy', I left the jet running so I'm in a bit of a rush to get this over with. Truth be told, I would've been halfway down the block with the girl if I had chosen to knock you out instead of having this inane conversation." He took a slow, deliberate step forward. "And aren't there some pesky G-Listers you could be hunting down at the moment?"

"_Dear Lord, he really is as bad as they say," _The archer put her now tired hand down, and without taking her eyes off of the boy wonder wannabe, went up to Lian and clasped her shoulder. "What do you think kiddo?" she asked. "Is he for real?"

Lian gave the boy an appraising look, and nodded. "His batarang's showing."

Robin's features soured, and his body appeared to deflate as he hastily pulled his shirt over the back of his pants.

Mia took the opportunity to make a smirk of her own. With everything looking to be under control, and possessing a strong urge to shoot the Electrocutioner in his Tesla coil, she gave Lian a big hug, whispered a "see you later" and walked toward the door. "Would've fought you the whole way if you tried." She muttered to the kid as she passed him.

"Your track record with Robins speaks for itself."

Her smirk widened. "Not me," she motioned to Lian adjusting her backpack. "Her."

Robin frowned as he watched Speedy shot one of those abhorrently kitchy grappling arrows up a building and swung out of view.

"Hrm,"

He started walking out the door, looking for all the world that he was about to leave Lian in the house out of spite.

"You coming?" he declared, more than asked.

Lian took one last look at her surrogate uncle's home, hoping it wouldn't be too long before she'd be back, and followed Damian out.

* * *

(Star City – The Streets)

"G-Lister." Damian mused fondly. Now that he thought about it, it was a rather clever jab at Green Arrow's rogue's gallery and in some way, everything associated with the bearded copycat. A low tier on the alphabetical ladder coupled with the beginning of the vigilante's alias, grade-A insult to a grade-G operation. He wished he had thought of it.

Thinking of such things served to distract him from the dreary circumstances he found himself in. Being sent all the way to the other side of the damn country to pick up a little girl because her daddy had been friends with Grayson and thought that Gotham would be a great place to keep her daughter safe and hidden for the next few days. Did that scarlet charlatan even look at the news, didn't he know about Zsaz's operation, what that sick bastard had done to all those kids before he, Grayson and Abuse had put a stop to him. Gotham was no asylum. Then again, it was the girl's funeral if things turned south.

Riding the private jet here had just nearly made the trip bearable if it hadn't been so inexcusably subpar. It was horribly clear that his father hadn't really used it all that much, despite owning it for several years; the sodas were flat, the seats hard as stone, and the ice cream expired. Or maybe it was yogurt. Either way it was revolting.

The batmobile, though less spacious would have gotten him here in a much better state. It could've gotten here only an hour later too with all the work he'd put into it. Grayson would see things his way, and if Damian's calculations were correct, the former guardian of Bludhaven would be NOT seeing something in particular right at that moment. But Grayson insisted he'd need the blasted plane, so the jet would have to take them back to good, old, child-friendly Gotham.

Them.

Ah, yes, The Girl.

He gave her a glance, she tried giving him a smile; Asian features, possibly Vietnamese, eyes, blue, most likely inherited from her father, clothing pink and blue, tad chubby in the arms and legs. He turned away, she matched the photo, that was good, it would have been embarrassing if he brought back the wrong girl. They'd never let him live it down.

The girl herself was all right, after he made it clear to her and her outstretched limb that he wasn't going to hold her hand, she kept to herself. However Damian found it a tad frustrating that despite how she had indirectly put him into this predicament, he found that he couldn't be cross with the child. Her presence was eerily inoffensive, almost annoyingly so. He prayed it would last.

"Um…" she began.

Well, so much for prayer.

"Yes?"

"I just wanted to know what it's like-."

"What?"

"Um, I mean, uh," now she was stuttering, perfect. "Why aren't we taking a cab?" she offered.

It was clearly not her actual question, but Damian decided he might as well, if only to justify what Grayson would call unusually "thrifty" behavior. "The rates here are criminal, and a few miles walk never hurt anyone." he gave her a withering look. "What is it that you really wanted to ask?"

She looked left and right, taking care that there wasn't anyone else on the street, and asked. "Are you really Robin?"

"Brilliant time to be having doubts." Damian remarked. "And in a public place, very nice."

"No one else is around…" she tried to say in defense.

"-tt-." He clicked. "Of course I am, what made you think otherwise?"

Lian's was beginning to itch under his harsh stare. She gulped. "We-well it's just I thought, you're just a kid right, don't you need, um, more experience before doing something like that?"

Damian had to fume at that; first she questions his legitimacy as Robin, and now his training beforehand? Who did she think she was talking too? "I'm going to share a little secret with you 'kid'. My list of predecessors consists of a circus performer, a petulant urchin, and a deranged fan. I on the other hand have trained under the world's deadliest assassins since before I could walk and have been tutored in complex subjects you probably can't even spell." His glare grew harder. "Do I sound more qualified now?"

She quickly nodded, and looked away, subtly trying to drop the subject.

The Heir of Wayne wasn't quite so ready to let it go.

The street after the next crossing was much more crowded than the sparse sidewalks they had traversed so far, and a small wicked thought popped into Damian's head.

He looked to his watch, they still had an hour to kill before he proved that he was right to both the Girl and Grayson.

"Say, how long have you been living here 'kid'?" he asked the girl.

"A couple of weeks…" she replied. "Wh-why?"

They were almost to the crossing now, the red signal still glowed.

Damian made an unsettling gesture, a smile, a smile too pleased for its or anyone's good. "Well what you said about experience got me thinking."

The light was beginning to blink: **Red, Black, Red, Black, Red, Black. Red**

"I've been here for about 43 minutes, and in that time I think I've gotten a fairly comprehensive idea of this city's layout."

"Whuh?"

**Black.**

The crowd they were going into seemed even more dense than before, the girl could hardly make Damian out from the rest of the group.

**Green.**

"So by your flawed logic, if by the off chance we were to separate, I should be hopelessly lost, while you should be completely fine on your own since you have more 'experience'." He explained, before he and his smile vanished behind an overweight pedestrian.

**Green.**

Her eyes widened, he couldn't, not over such a little thing. She hadn't meant to hurt his feelings or-or-whatever she did wrong. There were too many people; she could barely see 5 feet in front of her, how on earth was she supposed to find him he could be miles away or swinging from buildings, she didn't even remember what he had been wearing at the time…

* * *

**Green. Green. Black. Green.**

Despite her fears, Damian had neither scaled a building nor gotten very far. He was currently sitting on the hood of a parked red sports car a few yards away, taking care to lean so he was just at the very fringe of her vision and that she was in full range of his. Insipid as she might be, she was the mission's objective and losing her would give him no small amount of grief from Grayson and the rest of the Arrow clan, whatever the latter's fury was worth. If someone did try to muck it up by trying to kidnap the 6 year-old, well, he had a few nerve strikes and choice words for the occasion.

**Green. Black. Green. Black. Green. Black. Green.**

The ordeal would end when Damian thought she'd had enough 'experience', and then she'd keep her mouth shut until the car came arou-.

**Black.**

**

* * *

**

**STAR CITY FALLS!!!**

Damian knew, he just knew, that after this was all over, some hack of a journalist was going to put that on the front of whatever rag he was writing for.

**MODERN DAY CALAMITY: WRATH OF NATURE OR SINISTER PLOT?**

None of it made any sense, Star City lay across earthquake country like every other major city whose founders thought it was a good idea at the time. But this was insane, the ground was barely shaking when the first building started to collapse. Was this part of a doomsday plot, an alien invasion, or some interdimensional warhead? The possibilities of what could cause this were terrifying, staggering, and horribly intriguing. Was this how Batman would think? How he would feel? Having to scramble for shelter while resisting the urge to jot down notes to formulate an investigation or counterattack?

**SHOCKING IMAGES OF BEFORE, AFTER, AND DURING!!!**

All these running civilians screaming in fear and confusion were getting in his way. They had run towards him, away from him, left, right; to the buildings, to the alleys, to the streets, scrambling for shelter. It was chaos, bedlam, and sandwiched at the heart of it frightened and stationary was a bundle of quivering pink and blue.

**Yesterday afternoon, the tranquil sun washed bustle of the Californian metropolis of Star City was shattered in a brutal, unprecedented…**

He nearly tripped when it started. The horde of panicked civilians had nearly taken him under. Everything seemed to be getting blurry, the buildings streaking to and fro like titanic strobe lights. Bits of masonry pelted him from above. With all these obstacles, one couldn't blame Damian for thinking that the whole city had turned against him. That is was trying to stop him, that it was trying to make him fall.

"**I remember screaming, crying for help, but inside, inside I felt empty, hollow, cold, like a part of me was somewhere else and was trying to drag the rest with it."**

Had the city been a person, Damian would have spat on its face for the audacity of this resistance. The son of Bruce Wayne didn't fail, the son of Bruce Wayne didn't panic, and by God he swore, the son of Bruce Wayne DID NOT get knocked down on his ass.

**Despite the immediate intervention of the Justice League-.**

Anger in his heart, he set to countering the offensive; a sidestep here, a somersault there. Taking this foe on headfirst would be hazardous to all parties. The core of it was the same as fighting any enemy, a matter of dodging his attacks and weaving past his blows.

**Powerless-.**

He spun, losing sight of the Girl for a moment. He was close, barely 20-18 feet, it was difficult to tell but he was nearing her. With a few hours to kill, or was it an hour, help he could rely on was still far away. There was a big blank to what they could do to survive this until then, but reaching here came first, it would be easier to keep her safe.

**Pictured above is building in the middle of collapsing, one of the many such cases in Star City's center.**

He yelled above the cacophony of shrieks and cries, and by some miracle she turned and smiled. How she was able to pick him out from the crowd after being unable to barely a minute before was a question he'd have to ask later. Something about his charge seemed different though, everything about her looked darker, dimmer. Shadowed.

**Before anyone could react-.**

The slab looked to be a foot thick, five meters long.

"_16 feet"_ he counted.

Falling from the fourth story.

"_14 feet"_ his mind screamed.

The crowd dispersed.

"_11"_ dust blew into his face, but he didn't veer off course.

Now it was just him, the stone, and her.

"_8." _What the hell was that ringing in his ears, the clenching in the back of his head?

A stumble cost him a precious second.

"_6" _

The world around them was crashing down; cries of agony borne, screams silenced, explosions, dust, pain.

"_4"_

Nearly there, her arms were outstretched, reaching, his were too.

"3" his thoughts choked.

Picking her up would take too much time , the roof of the world was so close. There was a light beyond the swiftly shrinking shadow; if he could get them clear.

"2"

Damian pounced, and before his launched form reached her, his eyes met her striking blue ones. In that moment, Damian realized, with great self-disgust, that he didn't know her name.

**90,000 Dead and Counting.**

**

* * *

**

"_ROBIN! ROBIN! ROBIN! ROBIN-!"_

"_Robin-Robin-Robin-Robin-."_

"_Ro….bi…you…please…don…dead…i…sor…Robin…"_

When he came to, his back hurt. Most uncomfortable, but he could feel it, so that was good thing.

Cliché as it may sound, pain was good in this scenario, it suggested feeling, which implied living.

His arms were sore, apparently he had been propping himself up by the forearms while he had been unconscious. Nothing felt broken.

Damian gave himself a moment to breathe, made the closest thing he could to a prayer, if this didn't work…

All ten of his toes wiggled somewhere behind him. The rest of his legs were in working order too, not broken, just covered by the rubble like the rest of him.

The only thing that really disconcerted him was that something warm was nestled in the crook of his neck.

He lifted his head, grateful that whatever was on top of him was light enough for him to do so, and looked down.

It was late, almost night. The light that filtered in through the crevices he could feel on his spine was so faint he could barely see her.

Unfortunately he could, and what he saw made him curse.

Shining rivulets where the tears had been, eyes irritated and crimson from the dust and however long she had been crying.

He could hear her breathing beneath him, she was alive, not too injured, but it needed asking.

"Are you okay?"

The reply was hoarse, the voice strained from hours of sobbing. "Yeah, are you?"

A "Yeah," was all he could muster. "Anything broken?"

He winced, that sounded blunt, even for him.

"No." she whispered.

"Hm." He'd still need to get Alfred to give her a proper check-up to be sure, but as long as she wasn't in too much pain, this wouldn't be too hard.

First he needed to survey the street, see if there was a good place for a landing. He started to lift himself when he felt something grip at his shirt.

"Don't leave again…" the girl begged.

"Again…" Damian fumed, this time at himself. "It'll only be for a minute. I just need to see if it's safe. I'll be back, I promise."

He heaved, and all the loose pieces of concrete and grid iron that lay on his body fell away as he picked himself up.

Had the shame of abandoning her once not soured his mood he would have reveled in the euphoria that this act of pseudo-herculean might would have given him.

Instead, upon seeing what was left of Star City, all he could do was pointedly decide this was something he did not want the little girl seeing.

He looked at his wrist. The watch was still intact, the time was ripe; he twisted the dial until the display read 10:47, tapped the switch to make it glow, and groaned in relief when the device began to vibrate.

Damian knelt back in the hole he had made, trying to find those blue eyes again in the blackness. "How long have you been awake?"

"Since earlier." The girl cradled in rubble piped.

"How early?"

"Early."

The son of Wayne frowned, had she been conscious the entire time?

"I think it would be best if you gave your eyes some rest, they must be tired…"

"Will you carry me?" she asked.

He knew he'd need to, the landscape was too rough for her to walk on. "Yes."

"Piggyback?" she sounded almost eager now.

Damian grumbled. "If I must. Just keep your eyes closed."

* * *

Star City was a mess, a bloody mess.

The dust lingered, conspiring with the countless plumes of smoke to mask the moon. Sewage gurgled through the cracked streets from the shattered pipes below. Buildings with their contents and tenants strewn in a morbid slide, their ribs and layers exposed made Damian feel he was trudging through some titanic, gutted animal.

The people, the corpses, were plentiful.

He could see hands peaking out from the rubble, charred bodies in the skeletons of cars, splayed limbs and broken spines of those that had fallen from great heights.

A number of them looked younger than him.

Too many looked younger than her.

Cluttered by detritus, empty of life. That seemed more appropriate a title for this misfortune. It was poetic, worthy, maybe the Planet would use it, he rather liked the Daily Planet.

Great care was made to his steps, walking on his toes, sensitive to any signs of weakness in what was left of the ground. However, great attention was also paid to the small, warm face pressed against his back, and that it never strayed to look either way and catch even a glimpse of all this carnage.

She was the daughter of a superhero, she'd need to tackle such things eventually, maybe even worse.

Not today though, she'd had enough for today

* * *

Lian wasn't afraid.

She had been of course; When Robin got mad and left, when everything started to break apart, when Robin wouldn't wake up after saving her from that falling building.

But now she wasn't.

He wasn't as big or strong as her daddy. He had to stop every now and then to set her back up, and he obviously found it a little difficult.

Still, in that small, uneven grip, she felt secure.

It was a few minutes later when she sensed the light. She could see it through her eyelids, and wondered if it was the sun rising.

It had been a long night.

"You can open your eyes now." Robin said, setting her on her feet, his hands still propping her up by the sides.

She did, and right in front of them was a car, a very strange looking car, with a big red glass bat symbol on the hood.

"Hope this proves I'm right…" Damian muttered, pressing a button on his watch.

Lian soon found herself strapped into one of the Batmobile's seats, coating the chair and the panel in front of her with a fine layer of dust.

Robin was in the other seat, looking at the gauges, tapping at the metres, before giving a satisfied nod. "Just enough for the trip back." He turned to look at her, not hard or harshly, but puzzled. "You look strangely excited, aren't you sleepy?"

She was, or she wanted to be, but she was in the Batmobile! It was even cooler than Uncle Ollie's Arrow Car and she just had to look at all the buttons and screens, and all the other mysteries it could possibly hold. "Not really."

The Boy Wonder sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Remember how I said I had been extensively trained and tutored before becoming Robin."

"Yup, since before you could walk, and in subjects I can't spell."

"Well, I suppose you'd be able to learn, to spell them later on. But one of the things I learned was a special…trick, that can help you sleep. It's a long flight back to Gotham on this thing, but it'll go quicker if you're not awake."

Lian stole a quick look out the huge red window, every ruin she could see through the tinted glass was awash in bloody scarlet. It wasn't nice. "Is it really that bad?"

The tone almost invited a lie to placate her, to maintain the illusion he had so strenuously maintained, but the boy that had saved her could see via the determined look on her face, that she wanted the truth. "Yes, if not worse."

"Oh," Lian frowned, her head hung low. "It would've been cool to see this thing fly but…" Was Mia okay? Was Ollie okay? Di? Dad? "…All right."

"Good," Robin said. "Now close your eyes, and when I count to four, you'll fall asleep."

The Girl complied, her eyes fluttering closed. "Okay."

He reached toward her, counting as he went.

"1."

This particular Nerve Strike wouldn't hurt, he had experienced each one first hand and knew that this one would cause the bare minimum of discomfort.

"2."

So why did he feel like he was doing something wrong, forgetting an important element?

"3."

4, nearly escaped his lips, before he realized what was missing.

"Girl?"

"Hm?" her face was screwed up in concetration, indicating that she was putting a lot of effort into keeping her eyes shut.

"What's your name?" Damian practically blurted. "Because, you know, those rocks hit me on the head pretty hard."

"Lian." She replied, smiling slightly at his obvious blunder.

"Well, then…" Damian began. "…Sweet Dreams Lian…"

Grayson and Pennyworth would undoubtedly chew him out for this: Hijacking the Batmobile without a word, knocking out a six year-old with a Nerve Pinch, but at the moment, looking down at the bizarre pentagon shaped scar of ruin where the heart of Star City once stood-.

"-tt-."

-He just wanted to go home.

To be continued…

Author Note: Well, if you've gotten this far then you may be wondering why there's a honking big To be continued when the story is listed as complete. It's due to the fact that I had an idea for a whole series of one shots featuring Damian and Lian. You see, one of the chronological liberties (asides from putting this firmly after Batman Vs. Robin, Blackest Night, and Cry For Justice) I took was making Roy's stay in the Justice League infirmary longer, so as to give me an excuse to have Lian stay with Dick, Damian, and Alfred a little longer than in canon. Future installments won't be nearly as dark as this (though some will venture into that territory) and will be more slice of life and humorous with the core pitch being that Damian has to hang out with someone 'normal' and closer to his age, as well as how he'd deal with that.

Also, I apologize for the stylized paragraph breaks in the second half…in my defense, they seemed like a cool idea at the time.

I know a lot of people don't find Damian to be the most charming Robin that's ever been, but I believe that he does in fact have potential as a character, and is just as complex as his predecessors, if not moreso.

On the subject of Lian; Despite not having known her very well as a character, I, like many fans of DC, found her death to be rather cheaply done and badly executed; the disaster happens to occur while her babysitter leaves her HOME ALONE. So this is my sort of 'take that' to Cry For Justice's very flawed conclusion and to put her in stories I think she would have flourished in.

To fans of Damian and Lian, take note, this is my first time writing a DC related fanfiction, so my grasp on characterization may be a bit iffy, ie overexaggerated or underplayed. So if you see any consistencies, make sure to let me know in a message or review. Because it's really hard to balance Damian's bratiness with witty charm; he's like a constipated Calvin that way.

R & R, and who knows, if the reception for this is good, I might just make more.

Up Next (God Willing): Damian & Lian


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